michael's blog > education

More on Technology in the Classroom - NOT

Posted on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 10:01

reading on a desk top

A friend sent a link to a New York Times article about technology in the classroom – NOT.

The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.

Themes: 
childhood
creativity
education
learning

The Weaver Becomes the Web

Posted on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 19:35

digital brain 2

Appropriate Use of Technology in Education

The overarching insight in neuroscience the past decade is:

‘Brain and environment are one, interdependent, reciprocal dynamic process. Change the environment and you change the brain.'

The human brain created Technology that changed the environment that is now changing the brain. In the mid 1800’s Emerson, cautious of the industrial revolution, noted; the weaver becomes the web.

Themes: 
brain
childhood
creativity
education

It Takes Both - More on Patriotism

Posted on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 10:10

flag

Given the ‘state of the nation’ our founding fathers, those who authored the constitution and signed the declaration of independence, would be called rebels, unpatriotic, terrorists. The police state, FBI and CIA would have them under surveillance. There is no doubt about that. The men who pined their names to the declaration of independence were hunted down, many hanged, their homes and families ruined.

Some say, don’t’ be negative, don’t be cynical, color between the lines, accept it – this is the way the world is and has always been. Don’t cause trouble. Smell the flowers. Pet the cat.

Themes: 
democracy
education
freedom

The Go To college - Get A Good Job Myth

Posted on Sat, 06/25/2011 - 07:52

college debt

A trick question:
When is waking up from a bad dream bad?

Sure, there are many reasons to go to college. Getting a good job is not one of them. 50% of 2010 graduates are unemployed and the prospects for 2011 grads are similar. We have been told/sold that doing ‘good’ in school is the road to the good life. Good education = a good job and secure future. Not true. The costs of a college education continue to rise. Student loans (which use the same predatory Wall Street scams that burst the housing bubble) are greater than credit card debt in the US!

Themes: 
education
homeschooling

Patriotism Is An Act Of Violence

Posted on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 08:56

memorial day 2011

 

For my sons, Memorial Day 2011

God Bless America blared from the flag waving Harley as boy scouts, soon to be men, marched between white lines. Memorial Day, a national glance inward to mourn the lives mangled and lost ‘serving’ freedom and civic liberty. I almost wept, not out of patriotic duty and honor but for the deep feeling of shame and betrayal that this and past pageants endure.

While I honor the ultimate sacrifice brothers and sisters have made through the ages, some urgent, some heroic and necessary, so many lives, however, have been mangled for reasons – that had they known – they would have wept too.

Themes: 
culture
education
freedom
parenting
violence

Pages